PITTSBURGH — A Target 11 Investigation that led to criminal charges against former foster parents here in Allegheny County has now sparked a new criminal investigation in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland police tell Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle they are now looking into allegations that the foster father allegedly sexually abused another child two decades ago.
Earle broke the original story, and now he has an exclusive interview with the alleged victim in the latest case that’s now under investigation in Cleveland.
Earle spoke with Joe Gilbert, who filed the police report in Cleveland.
Gilbert said he stayed silent all these years because he was frightened and embarrassed, and he told Earle that if authorities had acted years earlier when the first allegations came to light, he would not be going through this now.
“This was extremely hard for me to do. Extremely,” said Gilbert, who was fighting back tears as he struggled to talk about what he says happened to him two decades ago.
He was adopted by Carl and Matilda Gilbert at a young age, though he said he didn’t find out until he became an adult.
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Joe Gilbert said they lived in McKeesport early on and then moved to Cleveland, Ohio.
“It’s a horror story. My reaction to this coming now, it’s so surreal. It’s unbelievable,” Joe Gilbert told Earle.
Joe Gilbert claims he was sexually abused by Carl Gilbert on two occasions, between the ages of 11 and 15.
“I don’t want people to have to go through what I go through every day, holding this inside and wondering where your anger comes from,” said Joe Gilbert.
Carl Gilbert and his ex-wife, Matilda Omiecinski, were charged earlier this year with sexually abusing another foster child who lived with them in McKeesport 30 years ago.
“I was molested beginning at the age of 9,” said Carlina Freeman, who claims Carl Gilbert and Omiecinski sexually abused her.
Allegheny County Police filed charges after Target 11 broke the story that Carl Gilbert allegedly impregnated Freeman when she was 14 years old.
Freeman provided Target 11 with evidence, including a paternity test identifying Gilbert as the father, and court documents where he admitted fathering Freeman’s child.
Amazingly, no charges were ever filed against Carl Gilbert until Target 11 exposed the allegations decades later.
The Allegheny County Department of Children, Youth and Families (CYF) has declined to comment, citing confidentiality laws.
Carl Gilbert, who had been living in Maine, was arrested and transported to the Allegheny County Jail, where he is now awaiting trial on rape and sexual assault charges. His ex-wife, Matilda Omiecinski, who lives outside of Cleveland, Ohio, was also arrested and charged with sexual assault. She was also brought to the Allegheny County Jail but later released on bond.
Target 11 has confirmed that they may be facing new legal trouble in Cleveland.
“I went to Cleveland police back in August,” said Joe Gilbert, who filed a police report and has spoken with detectives in Cleveland.
Joe Gilbert said he also went to Omiecinski shortly after the alleged assaults.
“I went to her and told her. ... When I told her, I expected a completely different reaction from her. They told me that they were the only people I had. They never told me I had any family, " said Joe Gilbert, who told Earle that he began rebelling, got into some trouble and then left home at 18.
Only then, he said, did he discover that he had been adopted, after his mother was murdered outside Pittsburgh years ago. The case of Jessica Freeman, who was found strangled to death in Bethel Park in 1992, remains unsolved to this day, but authorities told Target 11 earlier this year that they were closing in a suspect. Target 11 profiled the unsolved murder case earlier this year.
“Everything was kept from me. That’s what I was being told by Matilda, that she’s my mom. I was angry at first. I wanted to find out who these people were,” said Joe Gilbert, who also learned that Carlina Freeman is his aunt. Joe Gilbert’s mother Jessica and Carlina were sisters.
Joe Gilbert told me he has reunited with Carlina, and he said her decision to come forward last spring ultimately gave him the courage to go to Cleveland police in August.
He said he still has a lot of questions about his aunt’s case; most importantly, why nothing was done decades ago.
“I just want to know how that could happened to my aunt ... and then if something would have been done, this would have never happened to me, ever. A lot of questions, and someone needs to answer them. It’s a failure, a failure of the system,” said Joe Gilbert.
Earle spoke with a public information officer for Cleveland Police. She confirmed that the case is still under investigation.
Meanwhile, both Carl Gilbert and Matilda Omiecinski have pleaded not guilty to all charges, and their trials are set to get underway at the Allegheny County Courthouse in April.
Defense attorneys representing both defendants have indicated that they plan to subpoena records from the Allegheny County CYF.
Target 11 investigator Earle said that may ultimately provide Carlina Freeman and Joe Gilbert with the answers they both have been searching for decades.
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